Terra Madre Delegate Profile -
Aubrey Skye,
Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota

When compared with other populations in the U. S. and throughout the world, American Indian and Alaska Native communities suffer a disproportionately high rate of type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes, which usually develops in adults but can develop in children or adolescents, is caused by the body's resistance to the action of insulin and by impaired insulin secretion. On average, American Indians and Alaska Natives are 2.6 times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes than non-Hispanic whites of a similar age.

On the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, situated in North and South Dakota, Aubrey Skye is battling the epidemic the best way he knows how, with a garden trowel. As garden coordinator for the Reservation's diabetes program, Aubrey is determined to educate his community about ways to prevent and control disease. Aubrey acquired his agricultural knowledge from years spent on a Navajo Reservation taking permaculture and gardening classes. A member of the Lakota, the largest division of the Sioux, Aubrey notes that his people were originally hunters and harvesters that traded for vegetables. The absence of an agricultural tradition is one of the obstacles the gardening project was designed to overcome when it was established in 2000.

Standing Rock's first plot was planted near the high school in order to attract the young community and develop their interest in fresh-grown vegetables. The gardens flourished over the first few years and in 2003 they became part of the Reservation's diabetes program. "We Native people are blessed with the ability to lower blood sugar levels quickly with exercise. Gardening offers both functional exercise and high-quality, culturally appropriate nutrition - another key to wellness," says Skye. This season Skye is planting raised-bed gardens full of Native crops along with medicine gardens with traditional herbs. The ability to safeguard the experiences of past generations is one of the features of gardening that appeals to Aubrey. "Our seeds are our memory banks" he proclaims, "They've been through the good times with us - everything the people went through."